UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Today’s consumers have changed the way they shop and how they research products because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and corporate leaders have found that the data they have about their customers is now outdated.
Two marketing experts at Penn State say businesses will need to collect new data using new approaches and technologies. During an upcoming webinar, they will share insights about the data collection and analysis strategies businesses should use in a post-pandemic consumer landscape.
J. Andrew Petersen and Chelsea Hammond, who are on the marketing faculty of the Penn State Smeal College of Business, will lead the webinar, “Marketing Analytics in a Post-Pandemic World,” from noon to 1 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 26. Anyone who works with analytical tools or marketing research is encouraged to attend, and registration is now open.
“The pandemic was a triggering mechanism, which has led to a change in how businesses interact with customers and how customers make purchase decisions that weren't there two years ago,” said Petersen, an associate professor of marketing. “We’ll talk about the useful data collection strategies and an updated tool kit to draw insights about these changes in the marketplace.”
Changes in marketing analytics
The webinar will cover the changes to marketing analytics using both prescriptive and descriptive analytics, data collection strategies and tools to generate insights, and using artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict post-pandemic consumer behavior.
Petersen and Hammond, who teach in the Master’s in Marketing Analytics and Insights program that is offered by the Smeal College of Business exclusively online through Penn State World Campus, will talk about the changes and tools, then take questions from the attendees.
Petersen said the changes caused by the pandemic are in two areas, business processes and consumer behavior.
Petersen said businesses invested heavily in e-commerce, such as subscription services for online retailers or curbside pickup options for big-box retailers. This has changed consumers’ research, buying experiences and expectations.
Disruptions to supply chains, for items such as baby formula and cars, have caused a variety of consumer actions. They may buy different brands because their preferred brand is not available, or their perception of a brand’s reliability may have changed, which could impact the way they buy in the future.
In another example, Hammond noted that in the hospitality industry, hotels stopped offering daily housekeeping service for guests out of safety concerns, and now that has become the norm. Business practices that were adapted to address the pandemic have shifted consumer expectations.
Using new tools
Hammond said that predictive analytics that marketers used in the past, before those kinds of examples altered the business world, will not be able to predict post-pandemic behaviors.
“We can’t use those old predictors because things have so radically changed,” said Hammond, an assistant clinical professor of marketing. “We’re trying to figure out what those predictors are now, and the way we do that is through prescriptive and descriptive analytics that basically gather new data about how the world is today. We can then use that data to calibrate marketing and business strategies to address new consumer expectations and behaviors.”
Petersen said businesses need to recognize the post-pandemic consumer landscape, and tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning can help them predict consumers’ behavior.
“Some consumers have now changed completely the way that they're going to go about making purchase decisions and where they buy, how they buy, or what they like,” Petersen said. “Some people might go, ‘Now that's over, I don't have to deal with that again and go back,’ but that's the changing marketplace.”
Prescriptive and descriptive analytics and the other topics that will be discussed in the webinar are included in the curriculum in the Master’s in Marketing Analytics and Insights program.
The 30-credit degree program can help marketers leverage data, such as post-pandemic consumer analytics, to make meaningful insights in marketing communications, customer experience and brand management.
Visit the Penn State World Campus website to learn more about the “Marketing Analytics in a Post-Pandemic World” webinar.